Getting in the Way
by QuasiOuster
Summary: Sami and Lucas are looking forward to getting married and being a family with Will. Unfortunately, somebody has other plans. Lots of craziness and lots of humor. Enjoy!
1. Default Chapter

**AUTHOR'S NOTE: Hi y'all! This is one of the stories I was working on when my computer was out of commission. Thanks to all you great writers that inspire me with your wonderful stories. I hope everyone enjoys!**

I've been having some formatting problems so I hope this posts okay. Yvonne

**CHAPTER ONE  
**  
It was becoming somewhat of a typical scene for them which was a good thing. Lucas and Sami were sitting on the couch in his apartment. Sami had just finished the dinner dishes and was channel surfing for something acceptable to watch. Lucas was lounging in the corner reading the evening paper. Will was at the table finishing up his homework so he could maybe play some video games before his bedtime. Normally, he would be rushing through his homework so he could hide out in his room from his parents, but ever since they had announced their engagement, Will was enjoying spending his evenings with them as a family.

It wasn't so long ago that it was common for at least two of the three family members to be mad at each other-usually Lucas and Sami, of course. There was hardly an evening where at least one of their doors wasn't slammed or a few choice insults weren't exchanged, whether in anger, annoyance or just plain habit. Now an air of contentment had settled over the Roberts-Brady family and they couldn't help but enjoy their time together away from the troubles and stresses of the outside world.

In what seemed like another lifetime, Sami would have been running around worrying about her and Lucas' upcoming wedding. But in their siblings' infinite and quite selfish wisdom, they had decided that they just had to have Lucas and Sami's original wedding date. Forget that Lucas and Sami had picked out that particular date with their son or that they had already rented rooms and made down payments. Sami had said some pretty nasty things to Belle when she found out. She had since apologized for some of the things she had said but some of it she had repeated in even more colorful detail. Even Lucas was disappointed about the whole affair despite being sympathetic towards Philip's situation.

When Sami had later explained things to him through a series of heart wrenching sobs, it was clear to Lucas that Belle had hurt her terribly with her callous, selfish behavior and he reluctantly admitted that he hadn't exactly helped by not backing her up. So in the end, they had decided to postpone their wedding for a while until the drama of their siblings' marriage died down.

Sami had also made the difficult decision to distance herself a bit from her sister. Taking Sami's wedding date had been the last straw in a string of disappointments from Belle. Sami had always tried to be a good sister to Belle but from her bizarre friendship with Kate to her blatant disregarding of Sami's feelings, Sami was convinced that Belle couldn't really care about anyone but herself. Then again, it seemed appropriate that Belle would go the way of the rest of her fairweather family.

Sami stopped her channel surfing when she reached what appeared to be a promising episode of A Wedding Story on TLC. She suddenly scrunched up her face at the scene before her and continued flipping through the channels. She either didn't notice or chose to ignore Lucas' soft grin from behind his newspaper. He looked up to see an identical grin from his son's face and gave him a wink before returning his attention back to the day's headlines.

The channels flew by as Sami scrolled from movie to football game to music video and finally through a series of reality shows. She let out a dissatisfied sigh from time to time but never came close to settling on one thing to watch.

Finally Lucas reached out from his end of the couch and grabbed the remote control before she shorted out the television set with her frustrated search for the perfect evening program. "Give the television a break, Sami. Maybe this is a sign that you should find a good book to read tonight." Sami tried to get the remote back from him but to no avail. They both could hear Will giggling while Lucas continued to dodge Sami's grabbing hands and taunt her with the object of her abuse.

When fatigue won out over the desire to bicker with Lucas, Sami plopped back on her side of the couch. Lucas waited for that cute little pout that he knew she couldn't help but elicit. He was not disappointed when he spotted her lip poke out in her most adorable show of protest. When both he and Will broke out in a fit of laughs, Sami did not look too amused. "Don't laugh at me! I had a very stressful day at work and I just want to relax and watch some T.V. but nothing's on this stupid thing tonight. What's the point of paying all this money for cable if there's nothing worth watching?" She crossed her arms and glared at the cable box as if it were the root of all evil in her life.

Lucas took pity on her and set the remote on the table along with his newspaper but Sami didn't move to reclaim it. He moved over closer to her and took her in his arms in a loving gesture. "What can I do to make you feel better baby?" Sami looked over at him warily but then smiled sweetly at his kind gesture before giving him a quick kiss on the lips.

"Do you guys want me to leave?" Will asked from across the room. "Because I'm finished with my homework and I can just go play some games in my room." He was getting used to his parents spontaneously making out in front of him so he'd learned to cut things off early before they got out of hand in his presence. He supposed it would get old at some point but he was too happy to have his parents together to get grossed out like most of his friends would be. He planned to support his parents' affection having experienced the bitter alternative-even if it was a bit much at times.

Sami smiled adoringly at her son. "No, sweetie, we'll behave ourselves," she said innocently. Lucas, however, proceeded to nuzzle her neck and plant soft kisses along her shoulder. "Right Lucas?" There was no mistaking the insistence in her tone even though she continued to smile at him.

Lucas reluctantly ceased his exploration of her for the sake of their son's sanity. "Spoil sport," he jokingly replied to Will. However, he kept his arms tightly wrapped around his fiancée. "How about we whip out a game since you're so bored? We've got Monopoly in the closet and Scrabble, I think. By the way," he said turning his attention towards Will. "You can add Poker to the list of games that we can't play with you anymore along with Chess since you seem to have developed a nasty habit of beating your mom and I."

Will didn't even bother to deny it as he gloated from his father's praise. "What can I say Dad? I've got skills. Just like my mom and dad."

"Flattery will get you everywhere, my boy," Lucas responded. "See what kind of a monster we raised?" he directed at Sami. "This must be your doing being so smart and all."

His loving gaze was not lost on Sami but she couldn't let him get away with such a comment. "Oh no you don't General. Our son gets that smart mouth directly from you. Why don't we settle this like adults over an intellectual game of Monopoly?"

"You're on!" Lucas and Will shouted at the same time. Will walked over to the closet and returned with the board game as Sami cleared off the table. "I wanna be the racecar!" Will declared immediately.

"I want to be the thimble," Sami added. She opened the game and started taking out all of the different parts to spread out on the table.

Lucas reached over the table and picked the moneybag for his own piece. "You can be whatever you want, dear, as long as it's clear that I'm in charge of the bank." Before she could protest, he grabbed the rack of money and kept it close to his side of the board.

"Will and I won't take that personally, Ebeneezer," Sami said rolling her eyes.

"Don't be like that Sami. Let's be honest here. We all know that I'm better with money than either of you-especially Mr. Blow-All-of-My-Allowance-on-Junk-Food-and-Video-Games over there."

It was Will's turn to roll his eyes as he grabbed the dice and prepared to start. "Okay, Mom, we've got to take Dad down now. He's insulted our honor and we must repay him with a scathing defeat at Monopoly." Sami giggled at her son's dramatics and shook on an agreement to gang up against his father.

They were well into the game and surprisingly Sami was beating both her men. She was being kind of reckless in the beginning and they thought she would go bankrupt for sure but she owned both Boardwalk and Park Place as well as all of the railroads. It was Lucas' turn but before he could roll, the phone began ringing. Sami answered the phone since she was closest to it, keeping an eye on both Lucas and the bank.

"Hello?" No one answered back although she could hear noises in the background. "Hello, Roberts residence." Still nothing. "Is anybody there?" The only response was a click before the phone went dead. "Well that was rude." Sami shrugged her shoulders and returned to the game.

A few minutes later, the phone rang again and Sami again picked up the phone only to have the person hang up on her immediately. "What the hell?" Sami answered clearly annoyed.

"Maybe it's just a wrong number," Lucas said focusing his attention on mentally willing Sami to land on Pennsylvania Avenue where he had 2 hotels.

"Whatever," Sami answered rolling the dice, bypassing Lucas' property and landing on Chance. "They could have at least said something instead of hanging up on me." She scowled as she forked over 100 for some stupid hospital payment. "It was probably one of your old girlfriends or something," she added with a smirk hoping to provoke him into rolling a bad turn.

"Hey, if one of my old girlfriends calls here, they're going to have to answer to you, sweetheart," Lucas responded not taking the bait. He rolled the dice and landed on a utility reluctantly handing over a sizeable amount of money to Will who owned them both.

Will happily took his father's money from him. "Thank you very much. I told you that purchase would be very lucrative, Dad."

"That you did, Buddy." Will rolled right as the phone began ringing again. This time Lucas answered the phone as he watched Will gratefully land on one of his own properties. "Hello...anybody there? If you have the wrong number we'd appreciate if you stopped calling." After a few moments of silence, the caller hung up on him as well. "Hopefully, they'll stop calling now that they know a man is in the house."

Lucas didn't miss Sami's look of skepticism. "Of course, Lucas." She safely landed on Boardwalk now adorned with three houses. Lucas rolled and landed on Community Chest. His card advised him to take a ride on the Reading Railroad. Luckily, this allowed him to pass Go and collect his 200. Unfortunately, Sami owned all of the railroads so he had to now hand it all over and then some to his lady. "Oh stop pouting and hand over my money, Lucas." Lucas smiled at her mischievously and folded the stack of bills before stuffing them slowing into her low-cut top.

Sami tried to ignore the sensual way his hand lingered on her skin as he drew his hand back from her cleavage. "It's a pleasure doing business with you as always Ms. Brady." He winked at her before handing the dice over to their son.

"You guys are out of control, you know that? This is supposed to be a family game. Rated PG, PG-13 tops!" Will added. They all laughed and resumed their game.

They played on until Will bankrupted Lucas before finally conceding defeat to his mom. To her credit, Sami tried not to gloat too much especially in front of those persons in the room who had a business degree. She told Lucas that it was too bad that she hadn't bankrupted him since she was sure they would have been able to work out a pleasurable arrangement by which he could work off his debt.

By that time they finished packing everything up, it was almost an hour past Will's bedtime. They decided to head back over to Sami's apartment since neither Sami or Will felt like going back over there in the morning before they headed off to school and work.

Will headed straight for bed and Sami changed into her pajamas while she waited for Lucas to join her. As she was brushing her teeth she decided to check her phone messages. She absently pushed play and looked through her mail. The first message had a few nondescript sounds and then a hang-up so Sami deleted it. The second call was a hang-up as well and Sami deleted that one too. She quickly checked the caller ID but no numbers showed up in the system. When the third and fourth calls were hang-ups she looked at her machine and was astounded to see fifteen more messages on the display. As she went through the messages one by one, her sense of alarm rose when they all proved to be hang-ups. 


	2. Chapter 2

**CHAPTER TWO**

A slender hand slammed down the phone in a fit of rage as she was greeted with Sami Brady's stupid phone message yet again. That conniving whore was probably still over at Lucas' apartment playing house. But it was supposed to be HER spending quality time with Lucas not that pathetic excuse for a human being. She couldn't believe that they were even together much less getting married. The thought disgusted her. Someone as special and handsome and giving as Lucas Roberts could only be complimented by someone with her honorable traits.

Well, he would soon see the light. Sami Brady was just a passing fancy-a stone weighing him down. If Lucas couldn't see that for himself then she would just have to show it to him.

She could see it now. With Sami Brady out of the picture, she would become a mother figure for young Will, eventually taking that shrew's place in his heart and becoming his new and improved mommy. She had always wanted kids so she would treat Will as if he were her biological son and when she and Lucas had children of their own, they would be one big, happy family. She couldn't wait until Lucas Roberts was hers and Sami Brady was out of the picture.

Her lips curled into a blissful smile when she thought back to her time with the man she considered the perfect match for her. She remembered his laugh and the way he could fill out a pair of jeans. And that sexy smirk-she couldn't get enough of seeing that. Of course, there was the tenderness with which he talked about his son but when he focused his attention on her, she just melted into a big puddle of longing.

They hadn't had nearly enough time to get to know each other in her opinion and now he was with Sami Brady. But there was plenty of time and after she got rid of that soul sucking bitch, she was going to use all of it to her advantage. The time to get things started was right now.

She looked at her picture of Lucas Roberts and her sinister smiled deepened. "Very soon, lover, we'll be together. There's only one thing, or should I say, one big, blonde thorn, that could get in the way of our happiness. But don't you worry-I'll take care of that little mistake." She looked into the mirror and smiled as she smoothed a loose strand of hair away from her face. "That's right, very soon, there will be a new power couple in Salem. Our love affair was cut short but we'll be back and better than ever."

She checked her makeup one more time before grabbing her purse and heading out the door. She had to admit that she looked damn good and thanks to a little initiative, she was about to claim her prize. "Only the best for you Manda, dear."

Before the week was out Lucas would be hers and Sami Brady would be history.

_(Several Months Previously...)_

Manda was moping around the hospital for the third day in a row and her co-workers were getting a little irritated by her mysterious "poor me" routine. Yet they were intrigued by what could possibly have happened to thrust her so far into the dumps. Rumor had it that it might have something to do with a man since Judy down in the records had seen her at the Blue Note a few nights ago wrapped around some guy.

It's not that her co-workers didn't like her-she was nice enough. However, Manda did have a habit of being a bit of a drama queen. Nobody wanted to be too hard on her since she was a recent outside hire for the position of VP of Nursing and SUH tended to be a close-knit community. They didn't want her to feel like any more of the outsider that she really was-but she did make it very hard sometimes when she became completely absorbed in her overrated dramatics. Of course, everyone was careful not to step on her toes since she did have a lot of power at the hospital.

Jenny DeLeone, the most senior nurse in the trauma unit, finally decided to bite the bullet and find out what was wrong with Manda this week. She hoped it wouldn't be too painful. "So Manda, you seem kind of down. Do you want to talk about it or something? It might make you feel better." She looked sympthetically into Manda's teary eyes while silently chanting"please say no, please say no, PLEASE SAY NO" Every time she asked, she hoped that Manda would tell her that she was saving it for her therapist but Jenny was never that lucky. Today was no different.

Manda gave a theatrical sniffle and pout before glancing coyly over at Jenny. "Oh, it's nothing really. I don't want to bother you with my problems." She blinked innocently and Jenny almost rolled her eyes in anticipation of the superficial conversation they always had when Manda wanted to talk about her problems.

"Oh no Manda, you know it's no bother. You'd really feel so much better if you talked to us about it, right Tasha" Jenny looked desparately at the retreating figure inching slowly but purposefully towards the exit.

Tasha Clarendon, the head pediactric nurse, had been trying to sneak out of the room unnoticed, but was caught when Jenny mentioned her name. She'd have to make sure to pay Jenny back later. She was in the middle of a double shift and the last thing she wanted to deal with was another one of Manda's breakdowns.

"Uh, right" Tasha said returning to the seat she had just vacated. With her escape plans thwarted, she plopped down and prepared herself for another installment of The World According to Manda. She hoped that it would at least be an amusing story but she somehow doubted it.

"Well, if you really want to know..." Manda muttered, clearly gearing up to divulge the entire story with as much detail as she could muster. "It's just that I had the worst weekend of my life. It started out so great and now I'm never going to be happy again." Heavy drops of crocodile tears were streaming down her face, which was the usual sign that a minor crisis had occurred in her life. Hopefully, this time it would be more significant than her neighbor who had the nerve to leave his wet snowshoes outside of his own apartment door or last week's coffee shop crisis when they didn't have her usual sugar-free blueberry scone.

"I thought I had met this great guy and we were getting along so well and spending so much time together. But it just all went down the tubes." Tasha took this as her cue to pass Manda some tissues so that she could continue torturing them with her latest lame adventure.

"He was so great at first but then this girl said that he would run out on me but he said that she was just crazy so we went back to his place and things were going so great that we went out again but I almost had to come into work but then I didn't so we went back to his place and he was thinking about that girl and called out her name and then she walked in on us so I called him a liar and told him never to call me again. So you see, my life is so over"

Tasha and Jenny looked at each other and Jenny reluctantly asked her to slow down and start from the beginning so they could get the whole story. After she finally explained how everything had gone down, the girls had to do their best to keep from laughing. Not only did her story make her sound like a third-rate slut but it also looked like she was totally played. In all fairness, it seemed as if it wasn't completely her fault that she had walked into another couple's drama but Manda really needed to learn how to pick up on the signs of a man who clearly isn't over his ex.

"So what was this Romeo's name? Maybe we know him since Salem is so tiny" Tasha said brightly, feigning interest. "If we know him, maybe we could rough him up for you in the name of women everywhere."

Manda smiled at the girls' attempts to cheer her up. They were such good friends and she knew that they adored her as well. She was feeling a little bit better after talking to them even though she still didn't think she'd ever find someone who deserved her. She had thought Lucas was "the one" but he turned out to be as crazy as the rest of the men she had trusted in the past. "That's so sweet. It's okay though. He really was the perfect guy but I'll get over him someday and my happiness will be the best revenge. I just hope he sees me when I've happily moved on and cries over what what could have been a beautiful life together."

"Fat chance" Jenny thought, smirking from beyond Manda's view. She wiped the amused look off of her face quickly when Manda turned around to squeeze her hand for support. "That's the spirit, Manda. You just need to forget about him. Tell us his name and we'll spread nasty rumors about him so that he'll never get a date again. I'm sure we could all come up with a couple of diseases and neuroses that would appropriately deter any potential mates." She actually had no intention of doing anything of the kind. She'd be more likely to find him and congratulate him on escaping a 'class A' nutjob like Manda.

Manda was laughing now thinking about imposing that kind of revenge on Lucas. "He doesn't know who he messed with. Actually, you guys probably do know him since he mentioned that he used to work at the hospital."

Jenny and Tasha perked up with interest at the prospect of some juicy gossip about someone they knew. They both wondered who it could be. Maybe it was that loser up on the 7th floor who was mysteriously fired a couple of weeks ago. He was shady but he had a look about him that was dangerously sexy. Or maybe it was one of the residents from last term. At least one part of Manda's story would be worth the price of admission.

"Well, he was so handsome with thick brown hair and the sexiest dark brown eyes. He could make my toes curl with his cute grin. He had a kid too and he was so cute talking about him and how much he missed him while he was away at camp." She leaned toward the two women and lowered her voice to a conspiratorial tone. "And what a lover! He was absolutely amazing in bed. He was definitely all man if you know what I mean" Jenny and Tasha smiled broadly at Manda before sharing a brief glance, both thinking that it was a little suspect that she had hopped into bed with some guy after just meeting him-and a guy with baggage no less.

"So what's his name" Tasha asked, eager to get to the interesting part and away from the gross slutty Manda part.

Manda snapped back from her memories of her amazing, albeit temporary, bedfellow. "Oh yes, of course, his name was Lucas Roberts." She still couldn't help giving a dreamy inflection to his name, even after the way he had hurt her. He was certainly a total jerk but it had been good while it lasted. "Do you know him"

Tasha and Jenny's jaws dropped open in surprise at the mention of that very familiar name. Tasha was the first to get over her shock now wanting to know all the dirty details. "So Manda, what was the name of his girlfriend-you know the one who walked in on you two in the middle of..." she couldn't bring herself to finish the statement especially now that she knew who Manda had been with.

Manda instantly stiffened with anger thinking about the buzzkill that destroyed her beautiful weekend. "Ooh, that stupid bitch who tried to sabotage me and took my man? I'll never forget her name. Her name was Sami. What kind of name is that anyway? It's a stupid boy's name. She wasn't even that cute either. Okay, her outfit at Alice's was semi-cute but she was a complete hag." It was official. Manda was totally bitter.

Tasha and Jenny looked at each other with amusement. So Sami Brady and Lucas Roberts had been having a thing? They both wondered how long it had been going on. Both nurses had been new when Sami and Lucas worked at the hospital. Tasha didn't really know Sami or Lucas but Jenny had been at least friendly with Sami. They both hated that nasty Nurse Brenda and would make fun of her together when they worked on the same floor. Jenny was always amused by how much drama went on in Sami's life but it was usually fun to watch-especially when she was fighting with Lucas Roberts. She couldn't blame Manda for trying to hook up with him since he was a pretty hot specimen of manhood.

She didn't know much more about Lucas and Sami than any regular Salemite did. The only thing Tasha knew about Sami Brady was that she was the reason for all those extra trainings on patient confidentiality thanks to her and Eugenia's little stunt with the switched paternity test results. She once had coffee with Dr. Brandon Walker-before he had married Sami, of course-and it had been worse than watching paint dry. Tasha had seen Sami a few times after some accident she had had the previous summer and when her mother was in the hospital confessing, apparently falsely, to all those murders. She had only met Lucas once when their paths had crossed during one of the many hospital charity functions with which she volunteered.

However, Jenny and Tasha knew enough to say that Manda chose the wrong couple to get involved with.

Manda interrupted their musings with more whining about her unfortunate weekend. "So do you know them? Maybe you can help me get some dirt on this Sami skank. Wouldn't that be fun"

Neither lady had any desire to mess with crazy Sami Brady. And if it was true that she and Lucas were in the middle of domestic troubles then they didn't want to have anything to do with Lucas either.

"Uh, I think maybe I've heard of them...vaguely. They have a kid together or something right" Jenny didn't want to give anything away that would encourage Manda's whining. She glanced over to Tasha seeing her shrug her shoulders in feigned indifference. The sharp poke from her that followed was message enough that Jenny never should have opened up this can of worms.

Manda was so absorbed in holding court at her staged pity party that the looks between Tasha and Jenny went completely unnoticed. "Why don't you two ask around for me? If you find out anything then you can fill me in and we can get some revenge. Maybe I can even get a second chance with my little snuggle bunny Lucas. It might take a little time to forgive him for letting that slut interfere with our beautiful future but I'm sure after he begs for a little while, we'll be able to put it behind us. Then we can live happily ever after like it was always meant to be." She closed her eyes as if imagining every gaudy bead on her wedding dress and every hair on her and Lucas' hypothetical children.

"Do you really comprehend anything you're saying right now" Tasha asked incredulously. Manda just looked back at her with the usual clueless expression. "You cannot be serious about all that." Jenny jabbed her in the ribs so as not to earn her a triple shift for talking to their supervisor like that.

"What Tasha means is that we think that you shouldn't get caught up in all of their drama. Sure this Lucas may have been a nice guy but he's hardly the only fish in the sea. You should focus on getting over him and finding someone who deserves you."

"Yeah, that's exactly what I meant to say" Tasha replied rubbing her side. "What about that cousin of yours that just got out of jail, Jen"

Manda giggled at the two nurses and picked up her things to leave. "You two are so funny. I'm so glad we're best friends." Both women tried their hardest not to simultaneously gag and laugh in her face at the thought that they would actually be buddies with a lunatic like her. "Don't worry, I'll figure out how to handle this situation. But you better believe that Lucas and this Sami are going to get what they deserve. I'm going to make sure of it. Thanks guys. I feel so much better." She walked out of the office with a determined stride and a newfound motivation.

Tasha grabbed her supplies and prepared to leave the office as well. She peeked out of the door making sure Manda was long gone before popping back in and grabbing her files. "I'm sure she's off to spread her crazy sunshine to the rest of the hospital. I thought she would never shut up about her absurd life. And I'm going to kill you for making me sit through that. You know what that means don't you"

"I know, I know. I guess I'm buying tonight" Jenny replied. "Keep an eye on her will you? The last thing she or any of us needs is for her to run afoul of Sami and Lucas."

"I'll watch out for her for as long as I can stand it. After that she's on her own and can dig her own grave compliments of Sami Brady. You never know-it might turn out to be kind of entertaining."

_(Back to the present...)_

Manda closed her cell phone as she pulled up to Lucas' apartment building. She was absolutely glowing with excitement over her plan to get rid of Sami so that she could have Lucas all to herself. She stepped out of her car dressed in a large cloak to hide her features. It was quite late so she didn't expect to run into anyone but one could never be too careful.

Her final call had been to Sami's apartment where thankfully, Lucas had picked up the phone. That was a good sign. At least she knew where they all were and that Lucas' apartment would be empty. She had received no answer at his apartment and her last phone call only confirmed her suspicions.

She pulled a large box out of the backseat of her car and struggled with it momentarily as she closed the door behind her. "Can't go dropping this little treasure. That wouldn't do at all."

Manda stopped and looked up at Sami's window before heading into the building. "Well, Sami, I'm sure you'll never see this coming. Say goodbye to your man because he's going to be mine soon enough."


End file.
